University of Alberta shooting

On June 15, 2012, 21-year-old security guard Travis Baumgartner, an employee of G4S Cash Solutions, shot four of his coworkers, three fatally, in the HUB Mall building on the campus of University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He stole his employer's armored truck and money, and gave the cash or left it at the homes of his mother and two friends. Baumgartner was arrested the next day in British Columbia, as he made plans to cross the U.S. border.

University of Alberta shooting
LocationHUB Mall, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
DateJune 15, 2012 (2012-06-15)
12:12 a.m. (MDT)
Attack type
Armed robbery, workplace shooting, heist, school shooting
Weapons.38-calibre revolver
Deaths3
Injured1
PerpetratorTravis Baumgartner
MotiveRobbery

On September 9, 2013, Baumgartner plead guilty of three counts of murder, and on September 11, 2013, was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole for forty years, one of the longest or strictest prison sentences imposed on anyone in modern Canadian history.

Details

Shooting

Several minutes into midnight, Baumgartner committed the crime while on duty at HUB Mall, a student residence and indoor food court, during a routine circuit with four coworkers to replenish ATMs around the city of Edmonton, as a part of their employment with G4S Cash Solutions. While refilling the TD ATMs, Baumgartner shot three of his coworkers with a .38-calibre revolver as they entered the secured vault located behind the machines, before locking them inside. He then approached the armored car they were using and shot and killed another co-worker. All of the four victims were shot in the back of the heads, at point blank range. He then stole the vehicle and fled the scene.[1]

Three of the workers died at the scene, while one survivor was brought to the hospital with critical injuries. The victims were Brian Ilesic, 35; Edgar "Eddie" Rejano, 39, and Michelle Shegelski, 26. A fourth guard, a male, was severely injured in the shootings, sustaining brain injuries.[2]

Capture

A manhunt ensued as Baumgartner fled Edmonton, dropping off money for his two friends and mother. While at a friend's home, Baumgartner destroyed his cell phone so that it could not be used to track him. After eventually hearing news reports in the media, both friends notified police and returned the money. Baumgartner left $64,000 on his mother's kitchen table, and then left the Edmonton area. He swapped his licence plate for one from his mother’s vehicle and drove away, heading west to the resort town of Banff. There, he threw his weapon and vest into a river, and headed to the United States border, supposedly to Seattle, Washington.[3] On June 16, 2012, 4:08 p.m. MDT (Edmonton time), Baumgartner was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection while he was trying to cross the border at the Port of Lyndon near Langley, British Columbia with $333,580 in cash.[2][4]

Travis Baumgartner

At the time of the shooting, Travis Brandon Baumgartner (born May 16, 1991)[3] was living in Sherwood Park, Alberta with his mother. Baumgartner had been hired by G4S Cash Solutions two months prior to the attack, and had no known disciplinary problems there. It is a requirement from the security agency to obtain a federal firearms licence, which includes a background check being run on the applicant.[5]

On June 1, 2012, Baumgartner posted the following status post on his Facebook account: “I wonder if I’d make the six o’clock news if I just started popping people off.”[5] According to a friend, Baumgartner would tell him that he would rob his coworkers, in a jokingly manner. In a police interview, Baumgartner told a detective he did not get along with his coworkers, and that people at his workplace would ridicule him.[3]

At the time of the shooting, Baumgartner had 26 cents in his bank account and owed $58,000 to his mother and two friends, due to debt over the purchase of a car and other items, and that he felt he needed to owe money to a friend due to years of being "forked over" money by him.[2][3]

Trial and sentencing

Several days after the killings, Baumgartner confessed to an undercover Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer in a British Columbia jail cell, saying: “I did it all. I killed those people and robbed their truck.”[6] On June 20, Baumgartner was flown in a RCMP aircraft to Edmonton, where he was taken into Edmonton Remand Centre.[7] The next day, Baumgartner appeared in court and was charged with three counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder, and four counts of robbery with a weapon.[8]

On September 9, 2013, Baumgartner pleaded guilty to the one charge of first-degree murder, for the death of Rejano, two counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of Ilesic and Shegelski, and a single charge of attempted murder. On September 11, he was sentenced by Associate Chief Justice John Rooke to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 40 years, until 2052. At the time of Baumgartner's sentencing, it was the harshest sentence imposed on anyone in the history of the Canadian judicial system since 1962, when Arthur Lucas and Ronald Turpin were executed in Toronto for capital murder convictions in separate cases.[8]

References
  1. "Travis Baumgartner gets 40 years without parole for killing co-workers". CBC News. September 11, 2012.
  2. "Travis Baumgartner pleads guilty in deadly Edmonton shootings". CBC News. September 9, 2013.
  3. "Travis Baumgartner Agreed Statement of facts". Judicial District of Edmonton. Retrieved March 31, 2020.
  4. Mertz, Emily (June 17, 2012). "Edmonton Police share details of Travis Baumgartner's arrest". Global News.
  5. Wallace, Kenyon (June 18, 2012). "Travis Baumgartner: Passed strict screening to get job at security company". Toronto Star.
  6. "Travis Baumgartner gets life in prison with no chance of parole for 40 years". Postmedia News. September 11, 2013.
  7. Cormier, Ryan (June 12, 2012). "U of A shooting: Baumgartner ordered not to contact family, G4S employees". Edmonton Journal.
  8. "Travis Baumgartner gets 40 years without parole for killing co-workers". CBC News. 11 September 2013.
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